The Great Moving Out Prank
by a-little-glimmer
Summary: A trend has been going around YouTube for the past several weeks where someone would prank their roommate that they were moving out and secretly film their reaction. Phil decides to try it on Dan, but what he doesn't anticipate is what Dan's reaction will be. eventual phan. oneshot.


Phil turns on the small videocamera and sets it on the table in the gaming room, then takes a step to the side and peers around at the screen to make sure the angle is okay. Phil nods, satisfied - if he and Dan are sitting on the couches, they'll be in frame. Now he just has to wait for Dan to get home from buying a few groceries, and he can get on with it.

For the past several weeks on YouTube, a trend has been going around where someone would prank his or her roommate that they were moving out. It's a stupid and sometimes cruel prank, but it can also make for some hilarious videos. The main outcome is the roommate's bad living habits would become exposed, the pranker or the prankee's:

"Are you moving out because I leave my underwear in the living room sometimes?"

"Is it because I never do the dishes?"

"Just as well, I won't have to listen to your horrible singing in the shower anymore." -things like that.

Then, of course, there are the clickbait couple videos - _I PRANK MY GIRLFRIEND I'M MOVING OUT! *goes horribly wrong*_ These are the cruel videos, the ones that make you feel bad for the heartbroken girlfriend; but, almost all of them are faked, anyway, so you tell yourself not to feel too bad. One of the more clever, original one's was a video where a 20-something-year-old trying to make it as a YouTuber told his parents he was finally moving out - their reactions when he told them it was a prank were priceless.

Dan and Phil have been getting tweets and comments to make one ever since the trend got really popular, but they never said they weren't going to. Eventually the curiosity (and many, many tweets) got the better of Phil and he decided to make one; he wanted to find out what Dan's reaction would be. Would he be okay with it, would he get upset? What habits of his would he use as justification for the move, or would he bring up some of Phil's? It wasn't until after that Phil realized he was actually testing their relationship.

Phil sits down on the couch, grabbing his laptop off the coffee table, and waits. Around 10 minutes later, he hears the faint jangle of keys, the subtle turn of the lock, and he hears the front door open. "Dan?" Phil calls through the house.

"No, it's a murderer," he hears Dan's casual voice carry upstairs as he enters the house.

Phil rolls his eyes. "Well before you murder me, can you come upstairs after putting the groceries away? I have to talk to you about something."

"Uh, sure, I guess." He hears the confusion in Dan's voice even though it's much quieter than before - he must be in the kitchen by now. And- yep, just a moment later Phil hears the cabinets banging and refrigerator opening as Dan puts food away. Phil glances at the camera, making sure it's still filming, and tries to concentrate on replying to emails until Dan gets upstairs.

"What's up?" Dan says as he enters the room a few minutes later. He sits next to Phil on the couch, kicks his feet up on the coffee table, and crosses his arms casually as he looks expectantly at Phil. Phil closes his laptop and puts it on the coffee table, then begins what he had planned for the past few days:

"Okay, here's the thing," he starts carefully. Dan furrows his brows and listens. "I'm.. moving out."

Dan opens and closes his mouth a few times before rolling his eyes and finally speaking. "Phil, is this one of those stupid moving out pranks?" He sighs in annoyance.

Phil continues on with the prank even after being suspected by Dan: "No, Dan, it's not. I'm sorry. We can still make videos and stuff together, but.." Phil isn't sure what to say next.

The expression on Dan's face dissolves into.. nothing. "Oh. No, it's okay.. I get it," he says quietly. The expression on Dan's face nearly breaks Phil's heart, but he has no idea why. Dan leans forward with his arms crossed over his knees, looking at the floor. Then he peers up at Phil and says, "Can I ask why?"

Phil hurriedly pulls a random reason from a video he had watched. "I just.. need to move on, Dan. It's time I get out of this apartment and, you know, settle down with a house and a family."

Dan lets his fall back down. He's silent for what seems like ages until he finally asks, "When?"

Phil hesitates - he should've anticipated these questions, but stupidly, he hadn't. "Er, in a few weeks."

"Where are you going?"

"I found an apartment for myself until I can get a house-"

"And start a real family, I know," Dan finishes. "I got it. I got it."

Suddenly, Dan gets up and leaves the room. Phil opens his mouth to say something after him, but no words come out. _Start a real family_ , Dan had said. He thinks Phil doesn't think they're a family. That he wants a _real_ one. A better one. In a real house, not their little flat. And why shouldn't he? That's exactly what Phil had said. Phil starts mentally berating himself for not realizing before how much that would hurt Dan, and he hates himself for deciding to do this stupid, stupid prank.

Finally Phil gets up and shuts off the camera, then hurls it at the couch. He takes a deep breath and walks to Dan's room, where he assumes Dan will be. The door is closed, and Phil stops for a second outside the door before entering. When he does, he sees Dan sitting at his desk chair, one elbow propped up on the top behind him and the other arm wrapped around his chest. His hand is pressed against his mouth and his face turned away from Phil. When Dan hears the door open, his head snaps toward Phil and Phil sees his face is streaked with tears, silently sobbing.

"Dan?" Phil's mouth falls open in shock.

"Phil!" Dan produces a strangled cry. His eyes widen and his hand drops away from his face. "Get out of my room!" He yells at Phil like a teenager at his mother, which would've been comical if not for the break in Dan's voice. The saltwater stains on his cheeks.

"Oh my god, Dan.." Phil takes a few steps farther into the room, and Dan quickly jumps up.

"I said get _out_!" Dan physically pushes Phil back out through the door, and although Phil's mouth protests, his body obeys, and he lets himself be pushed out. Dan closes the door right in Phil's face and he hears the audible _click_ of the lock.

"Dan, please open the door," he pleads on the other side of the wall. "I'm so sorry; you were right, it was a prank. I'm not moving out. I'd never leave you." Phil raises a hand as if to knock on the door before he lets it fall limply. Phil's eyes begin to water, and his voice breaks like Dan's did: _"Please."_

But the door stays shut.

Phil stands there for another minute against the doorframe, then drops to the ground against the wall and faces Dan's door as the tears spill over. He sits with his elbows propped against his knees with his face in his hands, crying like Dan had, until he hears the door open in front of him.

"Dan?" Phil looks up to see Dan standing there, his face dry but his eyes still red and puffy.

"Why would you do that?" Dan asks in a scratchy, hurt voice, like he couldn't believe Phil would do such a thing. And maybe he couldn't.

Phil quickly wipes his cheeks and gets to his feet. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," he repeats. "I didn't know!" He chokes up.

"Didn't know _what_!" Dan yells, and he feels his tears threaten to start again.

"I didn't know you would react like that," Phil says as a tear slips onto his own cheek.

"How could you not know! You don't know how I feel about you?!"

Phil opens his mouth to reply, and then stops as the words register - right as Dan realizes what he just said, too. His eyes widen, and he looks like he's about to bolt when Phil grabs his arm to ground him. "How... how do you feel about me?"

Dan looks down at Phil's hand around his wrist, and at the glance Phil quickly retracts it. "I... I thought you knew," he whispers.

Phil makes a desperate gesture to demonstrate his confusion, but by the way Dan is behaving, he can already guess.

"I... I like you, Phil. You know... like..." he trails off. "I thought you knew, and that was why you were moving out, and you were just saying that stuff about 'moving on' cause you felt weird about it, or.. didn't like me back." he finishes quietly.

"God, Dan, no. I'm so sorry, I didn't know. And of course, I didn't mean what I said about finding a real family. _We're_ a real family, Dan. And I love it. I love this apartment, I love our life; I couldn't want anything more. I.. I love you."

Dan's head snaps up with wide eyes. "Yeah?" he breathes.

"Yeah."

Dan takes a hesitant step forward and then pulls Phil into a hug. "I love you, too," he murmurs in Phil's ear.

Phil squeezes him tighter.

They slowly start to pull apart, but Phil stops when he's a few inches from Dan's face, their arms still wrapped loosely around each other. "I'm so sorry about everything tonight," he breathes.

"Everything?"

"No, of course not; you know what I mean." Phil's scornful tone clashes with his ashamed expression.

Dan rolls his eyes. "I know. Can we just put it behind us?"

Phil nods, and he's reminded again of how close Dan is to him. Unconsciously, his eyes trail down to Dan's lips before they quickly flick back up to his eyes. Dan simply raises his eyebrows and glances down at Phil's lips, too. Slowly, both lean in to finally do what they'd wanted for years.

Later that night, Phil sneaks out of his bedroom and goes into the gaming room to retrieve the discarded camera, still where he had thrown it on the couch. He quickly deletes the only footage on it, and replaces the camera in it's rightful spot on a shelf. Finally over and done with, he quietly slips back into bed with a sleeping Daniel. Dan murmurs something and rolls closer to Phil in his sleep, who grins and starts cuddling Dan. But instead of sleeping, Phil starts thinking about his horrible actions tonight.

What did he think was going to happen? Of course Dan would be upset, he knew that. He was testing their relationship, seeing what was going to happen, but Phil never would've done it if he knew Dan would be _that_ upset. He also didn't know of Dan's feelings for him - he must've known on some level, but just wasn't sure of them. And once Dan admitted it, everything seemed to click right into place.

Dan shifts and mumbles in his sleep, and Phil grins and pulls him closer. His prank couldn't have been that bad if it led to this, could it?

A/N: hey guys, thanks for reading! hope you enjoyed this oneshot, please favorite if you did and leave a review letting me know what you think! you can subscribe to my channel by clicking *here* or check out my last fic over *here*! ok sorry lol, but really, it would mean a lot if you'd check out some of my other stories if you liked this one. if you already have, thank you! also i promise i havent abandoned my long hs au if you're following that, i'm just trying to find motivation to write the next chapter. i've just been a lot more inspired by other things lately (like this fic heh oops...) ~l


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